Pharma’s ‘Best-Kept Secret’

Margaret Keegan, CEO, Precision Medicine Group

On Oct. 1, Precision Medicine Group (Precision) announced that Margaret Keegan would be the new CEO of the company. At the time, Precision described Keegan as an industry luminary, citing her experience in various executive leadership roles at organizations such as GSK, IQVIA, and ICON plc. Serving at the time as operating partner at Linden Capital Partners, which she joined in 2021, Keegan says making the move to Precision was an easy decision. The company is a specialized services provider of next-generation approaches to drug development and commercialization.

“What I say about Precision is that they’re the industry’s best-kept secret,” she tells Pharmaceutical Executive with a laugh. “Co-founders Mark Clein and Ethan Leder know that I feel that way. If I told you that in 2023, 42% of the drugs that were approved by the FDA were supported by Precision, I bet you’d be surprised. Our size may also be a surprise, as we have over 3,500 employees across the globe, which makes us a well-sized, expert organization.”

Clein, the former CEO as well, stepped into a new role as executive chairman. This means that he’s still a presence at Precision, which is something that Keegan sees as a positive. She shares that moving into the CEO role has gone very smoothly.

“It was a very planned transition,” she says. “What’s unique is that Mark initiated the decision to move someone new into the CEO role to take Precision to the next chapter of its evolution. They spent some time looking for the right person before I came into the picture. I’ve found Mark to be a tremendous help. We text and talk every day. He has a great sense of humor, and the expertise that he and Ethan have in this space ensured that the organization was built to address the challenges of the industry. For me, it’s like having an extra right hand.”

While Keegan says she was aware of Precision prior to joining the organization, it wasn’t until she gave the company a closer look that she realized how impressive she thought it really was.

“I knew about the organization and admired them from afar for a specific reason. They were very scientific and showed great expertise in the field of precision medicine,” she says. “However, that was about the extent of my knowledge. When I joined, I was quite impressed at how broad the operations actually are. Our services span development, manufacturing solutions, product launches, and commercialization for transformative therapies.”

While it’s definitely a compliment to call Precision a “best-kept secret,” Keegan says one of her main goals as CEO is to help elevate the company’s profile. She believes that such a task simply means finding new ways to get Precision’s message out there and show off the organization’s abilities. The company is headquartered in Bethesda, MD, and has offices throughout the US, Europe, and Asia.

“My goal for Precision is to take us from being our industry’s best-kept secret to an industry leader,” she explains. “We have been an early mover, purpose-built around providing services to support precision medicine from end-to-end. We can move from being a proven innovator to being a global leader in drug development and commercialization. Part of achieving that goal is to tell leaders in the life sciences about the expertise, capabilities, and the breadth that exists within Precision and how that can help them develop and commercialize their drugs.”

TARGETING ITS VISION

When describing the current state of the precision medicine market, and the broader healthcare industry, Keegan asserts that it’s very complex and always evolving. One area where she sees this growing complexity is in the commercialization sector, which she attributes to the fact that more and more targeted medicines are being developed.

This means that not only is development more complicated than it used to be, but the commercialization phase also requires new strategies to optimize access. The days of just performing a website and marketing blast around a product are gone, Keegan stresses. Teams must really understand who the medicine will benefit, and then deliver targeted messages to payers, healthcare providers, and patients.

“For our customers, whether they’re biotech or large pharma, it’s a very challenging environment for them, especially around cost,” she tells Pharm Exec. “We help our customers control their costs, increase operational efficiency, and balance all of that with ensuring that the medicines they develop are both effective and well-priced to get them to the right patients.”

The challenging healthcare environment, Keegan continues, adds to the importance and role of service providers such as Precision.

“This organization is purpose-built around precision medicine and we have experience in the successful development and launch of a significant number of breakthrough treatments,” she says. “That experience translates to make Precision the partner of choice for any complex treatment in development. I personally believe we have the right expertise, capabilities, and are at the right scale now to partner with biotech and large pharma companies and help them navigate the current landscape.”

THE PATH FOR PRECISION DRUGS

Keegan also believes that trends in the precision medicine sector are showing that it will continue to grow in the coming years. However, for this to happen, she says that there are certain issues that companies working in precision medicine will need to focus on. One of the main issues, she adds, is safety. Fortunately, new and emerging technology has provided the industry with the tools it needs to better address this area.

“I do think precision medicine is going to continue to grow, and I hope we get smarter and smarter about getting the right medicines to the right people,” says Keegan. “Sometimes, you just don’t know if that drug is going to work for you. It could be a safety issue because it could be toxic for some patients. The more we can identify what’s the right drug for the right patient, the better it will be for healthcare. I’m very passionate about the potential of [artificial intelligence] to accelerate this.

“I think if we address it properly, there’s huge potential in AI to transform drug development and commercialization,” she continues. “I’m passionate about that and having tangible, practical use cases around AI in our industry.”

The main challenge associated with AI, many believe, is demonstrating its practical use cases in the field.

The average person may only be aware of the technology from generative AI programs such as ChatGPT, but the algorithms and machine learning platforms being used in the pharma industry are much more sophisticated. According to Keegan, AI has already shown its usefulness.

“Suddenly, we have something that could actually make a difference,” she tells Pharm Exec. “What’s amazing to me is that when I got to Precision, I realized that we already have real use cases, and coming into that was pretty astonishing. What’s really interesting is that these use cases are on both sides of the continuum—on the development side and in commercialization.”

Concerning the former, Keegan points to a Precision platform that pharma and biotech customers can access to interrogate their biomarker data—and do so simply with chat functionality. “I’ve tried it myself and it is super cool,” she says.

In the commercial area, Keegan cites a Precision tool that she refers to as a “digital front door.”

“It enables patients to go in and understand their disease, find out what’s available to them, and see if they can get reimbursed for certain drugs,” she explains. “Again, it’s just using chat functionality, which patients need. These are very powerful cases and we’re definitely going to continue down that road and look for better, newer solutions for our customers.”

SPREADING THE WORD

Keegan has big plans for Precision Medicine Group. As alluded to earlier, she believes that the organization is fundamentally strong; it just needs to get its name out there more. To help accomplish this, Keegan plans on utilizing her previous work experience, such as her previous role at Linden Capital Partners, based in Chicago. Founded in 2004, Linden is one of the US’s largest dedicated healthcare private equity firms.

“That was a fantastic experience,” she tells Pharm Exec. “Linden is a great company with an expert team, so I learned a lot by being there. Linden’s work in the life sciences is very broad, starting at development and going right through commercialization."

When she arrived at Linden in September 2021, Keegan’s past experience had largely been focused in the development arena. After four years as group manager, data management and statistics at GSK, she notably went on to serve in leadership roles at large contract research organizations PPD, IQVIA, and ICON over a 20-year period.

“Interestingly, when I joined [Linden], a lot of the companies we were looking at were on the commercial side. This gave me deep insight into how the commercialization side of the industry operates, and the new complexities that need to be navigated to ensure wide access for new treatments,” says Keegan. “Coming into Precision, where we go from development through commercialization, it was a valuable foundation as I stepped into this role as CEO.”

LESSONS AND LEADERSHIP

When it comes to leaders in the life sciences industry, many CEOs will say that they decided at a young age that they wanted to work in the healthcare industry and focused all of their energy on doing so. For Keegan, however, she took a different path.

“That is a very long story,” she notes. “Like a lot of people in drug development, we actually are here for a good reason. We’re here because we help people. We help produce medicines that can lead to healthier lives. But did I think about that when I started my career? I absolutely didn’t.”

Keegan’s roots, instead, were as a mathematician, where she joined the Bank of England—the equivalent to the US Federal Reserve—as her first job.

“I was in the snappily titled Mathematical Techniques Group, which was very prestigious and hard to get into,” she remembers. “I got into that job, and after about one day, I knew I hated it.”

Keegan feels fortunate that she had that realization early in her career.

“I realized what I didn’t want to do; what I wanted was to do meaningful work, not forecasting government [financial data],” she says. “At the same time, a very close relative of mine was diagnosed with cancer, so I decided I wanted to bring my mathematics data background to oncology, and I joined Glaxo.”

As far as Keegan’s leadership style and views in her role today, she feels focusing on the people on her team is the most important aspect. She says they’re the reason leaders ultimately succeed, and good leaders learn how to foster that dynamic.

“It’s about the people that you lead,” Keegan tells Pharm Exec. “If you give of yourself to them, they will give you back 10-times that. It’s not about you. If you have a good team, and you help and support that team, they will follow you. They will do more than you ever ask.

“I wish I’d realized that on day one, when I was first a manager,” she continues. “It took me a long time to realize that, and it’s actually the most important thing. When you look back on your career, it’s not the great bonus you got in 1998 that resonates.”

Keegan adds that she gets a special thrill in seeing those she’s worked with over the years achieve success.

“I find that what you actually look back on is the people and relationships,” she says. “I’m always finding that somebody I used to have on my team is now running development at IQVIA, for example, or my ex-admin is now a director at ICON. Those are things that you actually care about. It is important to me that the people who work with me go on to do well.”